OUCH. Wonder if my dad should see that. He's got an 86 and 96' Vette Verts that are auto.

 

Oh well then, as long as it's in your blood, then you must be right.

 

My dad would do the same.

I'm mostly refering to the gray haired 'museum' Corvette owners who think they have bragging rights by driving the least amout of miles per year and never breaking the speed limit all while 'driving' an auto 'vert.

 

The Garage Queens. I gotcha.

My dad's had 15 Corvettes since 1969(he bought a stingray 4spd brand new going into the navy). He's entitled to having automatic Corvettes as he hits 60. He's been rowing through the gears since long before I was born.

Now it's my turn to do some rowing.

 

I guess you weren't as fast as GM says you should be... Then again, their drivers do this for a living, and are highly trained professionals who live on the track...

Again - what GM says, applies ONLY if you can drive like their drivers. If you can powershift, within under 10th of a sec, and do it correctly ***every single shift*** to avoid burning the clutch. You'll have to do this in every shift, do a powershift, and perfectly, so you can get ALL the performance of the car, and keep the longivity of the clutch, gears, and tranny. I agree that if "Feels" great shifting, and gives you great sensation, but an A4, with Transgo shift kit, programmed shift points/pressure, will put your back into the seat in every gear shifted.

 

To address your points:

More performance - obviously from the length and topics in this thread, that's quite debatable. There have been times in the Corvette's history when the published data from G.M. indicated that the automatic cars were quicker. The recent Pontiac GTO's published spec.s have the auto's edging out the manuals by a fraction.

Durability/It can take the horsepower - that depends on the transmission. The reason the early Corvettes were equipped with automatics was because GM didn't have a manual at the time that could handle the increased torque of the Corvette's motors (and that was when they had the straight 6!). My '75 had a Turbo 400 in it, and I would match its durability against any production tranny that GM has ever made, manual or auto.

Less weight - you are correct on this one. I've never heard of an automatic weighing less than the manual available in any given car.

Less heat - perhaps, but I've always been far more concerned with engine heat than any heat generated by the transmission.

It's a sports car - yes it is. But this thread indicates that it is not a given that sports cars have manuals.

It's what normal people expect in a performance car of those capabilities - this common bias (with which I strongly disagree) does exist, and that's what I meant by GM making a marketing decision to only off the Z06/FRC with a manual. Auto makers will also do this at times to limit sales of certain models to keep their CAFE figures in order.

Common sense - I think it should be obvious to you by now that I don't agree with you on this one.

 

My 60' times were terrible as the track would not allow me to launch the car without excessive wheel spin. I drag raced my 70 Chevelle since I was 22 yrs old and it was a manual 4spd car, I can shift with the best of them but if your 60' times are excessive then you end up with times like I did. In my case it had nothing to do with my shifting. Here is an article of the race where I ran the 13.24 and took 2nd place, definitely worth a look.
http://www.racesupercars.com/sn_tmp2.html

 

I drive an M6. In a quarter mile straight line, the A4 wins 80% of the time,